Spaceships!
by ST3PH3Nii3
Summary: It's not like it was bad quality; no, it was actually quite clear. It was just… she had no idea what the picture was of. Was it supposed to be something abstract? A Hiyoshi Wakashi OneShot.


Splattered in ink from the demonic printing machine, [Name] growled as she ran a hand through her bangs in irritation. The rest of her [colored] locks were pulled back because she didn't want to get the black ink into her hair again; she had learned in the past that it was difficult to remove. Ink from her hands smudged across her forehead from her previous movements, although unknown to [Name].

She had honestly thought about going straight up to Atobe-Senpai and asking him to replace the malfunctioning machine countless times, but she had never gotten the courage to place the plan into action. It wasn't as if [Name] was scared of speaking to the richest student and student council president; no, her pride just wouldn't let her go in there and beg for a new printer for the newspaper club. Besides, [Name] wasn't even the president! While she was the vice president and the main editor for the school's paper, [Name] didn't view it as her right to pester Atobe for a new printer.

However, with the printer they had now, [Name] was the only one who could get the temperamental machine to work occasionally. It was a fight that she had to go through once a week, considering that their paper was released weekly.

Not even people in the technology club, who [Name] had bribed to come and look at the machine, could figure out how to make it work properly.

"Stupid Atobe-Senpai and buying the 'newest, state of the art,' machines that won't even work properly…" [Name] darkly muttered to herself as she slammed her hand down on the row of buttons.

Club activities for the newspaper committee had ended about thirty minutes ago, leaving the [color] haired girl to herself in the club room. Even the president had left, stating that he had to study for upcoming college entrance exams. Like always, he had left the second year in charge of printing out all of the copies that were supposed to be ready for the student body by the next day.

[Name] rolled her stiff shoulders before hunching over and shaking the machine violently. Setting the last page of the paper that needed to be printed down on the scanner, she carefully aligned the edges to make sure that it would be scanned perfectly straight. Students at Hyoutei expected the best of the best; they wouldn't dare bother to even look at the paper if it was printed crookedly.

Truthfully, [Name] wondered why she even bothered with the newspaper committee.

She tried her best to make the paper interesting, but the students at large would rather read about ridiculous gossip concerning the tennis team. Who cared whether Atobe liked girls with long or short hair, or even curly or straight? Who actually wanted to know that, when Shishido bent over, someone saw the hem of his boxers and that they were actually red? And who on earth cared about the rumor that Oshitari was currently reading the erotic _Fifty Shades of Grey_ series? (Not that anyone could really know, considering that Oshitari loved covering his books with handmade book covers…)

Her screech resounded throughout the rather large, empty room when the machine roared to life and splattered ink all over her front. Glad that she had put on the old ink-stained apron beforehand, [Name] sighed in relief when she didn't see any black ink on her white uniform top. As she pressed the stop button, [Name] re-straightened the page to be copied before she opened up the machine to remove the ink cartridge. With the large black cartridge, warm in the palms of her hands, out of the machine, she shook it a few times in her hands to try and even out the distribution of ink.

A knock on the door startled [Name], which resulted in a quick jump, a fumble with the ink cartridge, barely catching it with the tips of her ink stained fingers and hugging it to her chest as she let out a breath of relief.

"Just one moment," [Name] called out to the person at the door while she quickly snapped the cartridge into place and closed the door on the printing machine. She wiped her ink stained fingers across the fabric of the apron before reaching for the door. "Ah, Hiyoshi-San..? Come in, come in."

[Name] was a little shocked to see the light brown haired male standing before her. She had been in classes with him on and off since their primary years at Hyoutei, but they weren't very close. They were both rather quiet, both neither wanting to make pointless chit-chat.

[Color] eyes watched as the male tennis regular stepped inside of the room, sliding the door shut behind him. Adjusting the strap of his tennis bag that was slung across his shoulder, he cleared his throat before speaking. "I was supposed to drop off a picture for the paper, but practice ran late."

"That's not a problem." [Name] shrugged, moving over to a sink to wash the ink off of her hands. She had been surprised at first when she had learned that the club had taken over an old home economics kitchen, but with a little bit of work and funding from Atobe, it made a great newspaper committee room. "Only, we've already written the paper that's going to circulate tomorrow. It'll probably appear in the next issue, if that's not a problem."

Hiyoshi's gray eyes scanned the room for a bit before landing on [Name]. He easily noted how she appeared to be covered in splashes of ink. If he didn't know her, he'd assume that she was an art club member, not a newspaper club member. Smudges of black decorated the front of the apron that she was wearing, also trailing across her forearms and smeared in patches on her face.

The male paused and shook his gaze away from the female.

Wait, had she said that his picture would appear in the next issue? He'd never had a photo appear in the paper. It wasn't for lack of trying; Hiyoshi had submitted quite a few photos up to this point, only to have them all rejected by the president as being too 'unique.'

"That's not a problem, is it?" [Name] asked as she dried her hands and arms, thankful that her [shade] of skin was no longer marred by the ink (although it was still a little pink from the recent scrubbing). "I know you've been trying for quite some time to get a photo in. I'll see what I can do."

"Okay," Hiyoshi nodded, his light brown bangs hiding his gray eyes as he lowered his gaze as he retrieved the photo from his bag. "This is one that I took most recently, so I'd like it back later."

[Name] blinked and tilted her head to the side. "If you give me maybe three to five minutes at the most, I can have the photo scanned and on the main computer. You don't even have to leave it with us."

"Ah, really?" Hiyoshi repeated [Name]'s action of blinking, but he didn't dare tilt his head to the side; that just wasn't in his character. "That's fine."

"Alright, it's right over here." The [color] haired girl waved him towards the computer as she wiggled the mouse to bring the screen back to life. She took a seat at the computer chair as she brought up the scanning program that they used. Reaching over to the scanner, she lifted the machine open. "Just place the photo face down on the scanner."

Hiyoshi complied with the request, taking one last look at the picture and nodded to himself in confidence. This was, by far, his best work yet. He was quite proud of the picture and glad that [Name] was so willing to work it into the next issue.

When she saw that the photo was properly placed, [Name] closed the top of the scanner and hit the 'scan' button. The faint beam of light showing the scanning process was avidly watched by both students.

As the scan finished, the image appeared on screen waiting to be matched with a title, name of photographer, date the picture was taken, and a brief description.

[Name]'s eyes scanned the photo, one [color] brow arching in confusion of what she was seeing. She could clearly make out the bright blue of the sky and familiar windows of large buildings. What she couldn't really make out, however, were the shades of light grey merging with white floating in the sky. She was not sure what to make out of the photo. Not to mention that their papers were strictly in grayscale, so the image wouldn't appear in color anyway. If she couldn't figure out what it was now, what would other people think when they saw it in black and white?

It's not like it was bad quality; no, it was actually quite clear. It was just… she had no idea what the picture was of. Was it supposed to be something abstract? Ah, but it couldn't be. This wasn't a painting, it was a picture. She never was any good in art, so she wasn't great with interpreting the meaning behind artworks. Photography was a form of art, so it had to have a meaning behind it, somehow.

"Um, Hiyoshi-San..? What am I looking at exactly?" She questioned as she squinted her [color] eyes at the screen. Her eyebrows scrunched in thought as she lightly scratched her cheek. A bright grin spread across her face as an idea clicked in her mind. "It… it kind of looks like a UFO..!"

[Name] tore her gaze from the screen to gaze at Hiyoshi, only to find her jaw dropping at the look of excitement in his eyes.

"That's what I thought it was at first, too. It wasn't until a little bit later that I realized that it was just a bunch of clouds."

"…Bummer…"

"What?" Hiyoshi blinked.

[Name] grinned at him before turning to gaze at the picture on the screen once more, her hands balled up under her chin and supporting her head as she continued to gaze at the image. "Well, I just think that UFOs are more exciting than clouds."

"…Really?" The tennis regular asked, not really believing his ears. Hadn't his earlier UFO photos been rejected?

"Really," She nodded and grinned somewhat ruefully. "The paper really needs more interesting articles instead of things like, 'Atobe's Style Tips,' 'Oshitari's New Read,' and 'The Colors of Shishido.' Ah, no offense to the tennis team or anything..."

"None taken." The regular cut his gray eyes to the side and grimaced as his view fell upon the front page of the newest paper, the actual titles that [Name] had just named off to him printed on the cover.

"Just leave this all up to me; I'll even write up a little article to go with it. I think this is a nice picture to begin your appearances in the paper." [Name] grinned at the screen, ideas for the article bouncing around in her mind already.

"…If you need any ideas for the article, I know a good book that could help." Hiyoshi volunteered as he adverted his gaze. "I borrow it often from the school library."

"What's it about?"

"The Seven Mysteries of Hyoutei Gakuen."

"Sounds promising~" [Name]'s grin turned a bit sinister. "Maybe we really do need a mystery slash scary story slash horror corner in the paper."

"…I'd read that."

"Good to know."

And thus, Hiyoshi Wakashi had his very first photo published in the school newspaper, alongside the article written by [Last Name] [Name]. It was the start to a very promising career for the two in the school's paper.

...

End notes: Thank you so much for reading! I figure I should explain the inspiration for this story. A few years ago there was a news feature about Japan on CNN. It turns out that there were special "UFO clouds" spotted in Yamanashi, Japan. They're actually called lenticular clouds, I think, and you can actually find a short one minute video of the clouds if you search for it. The footage actually is from CNN~ I do not own Prince of Tennis.


End file.
